Welcome! See Italy (and more) through the eyes of an artist: American sculptor and painter Kelly Borsheim creates her life and art in Italy and shares her adventures in travel and art with you. Come on along, please and Visit her fine art work online at: www.BorsheimArts.com

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Saturday, December 12, 2015

Fragments
tend to interest me sometimes more than “perfect compositions.” Maybe it is the idea of “less is more,” but I
tend to think it has more to do with the simultaneous feeling of mystery (what
did it look like originally when complete?) with education. With fragments, one can often understand more
about the process used… in a sense: removing a mystery, albeit a different one.

Here, I am still in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence, Italy. Here is what the museum wrote for the display
titled, “Fragments of Magnificence.”

“During demolition of the
unfinished medieval Cathedral façade in 1587, most of the surface decoration
was lost; the few surviving fragments are shown in this room. Among these are pieces found while excavation
beneath the nave of the Santa Maria del Fiore to uncover the remains of the old
cathedral, Santa Reparata. In the course
of those excavations in 1965-1973, the pavement of the new Cathedral had to be
removed, and on the underside of some white marble slabs 14th-century
decoration came to light, confirming that the Opera del Duomo had recycled its
costly stone to suit the needs of an evolving project. The carves slabs and those with colored
and gold mosaic inserts made the Duomo façade an image of the heavenly
Jerusalem described in the New Testament, whose walls are made of precious
stones (Revelation 21, 18-21).
Especially at sunset, when the Cathedral front glows in the waning
light, the allusion to that future city must have been clear.”

Enjoy.

What might look like popcorn under the mosaic is actually marble.

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Tuesday, December 8, 2015

In Florence,
Italy, the Museo dell’Opera, which
houses the treasures of the famous Florence Cathedral (or Duomo in Italian), recently
received a facelift. You may now view more
of the art and in a better context with how it was all intended to be viewed in
the first place. In some cases, you are
viewing the original sculptures
since pollution was causing too much harm to it in its original position on the
Duomo or the nearby Baptistry.

I am
often struck by how the quality of the figurative art changed back and forth
over the centuries, as well as how much was accomplished only with hand-powered
tools. But then, they likely had other
technical abilities of which I am simply unaware. Still, did we lose the skills after Greek art
or did artists just make a point to change styles? I have heard that the current beliefs of the
church often affected how representational artists were allowed to portray the
human figure. And churches tended to be
the only ones wealthy enough to pay for difficult-to-create art.

I was
surprised to see this marvelous piece of stone carving among some fragments on
exhibit from the Porta della Mandorla (the Almond Door). It turns out that this relief figure of the
Man of Sorrows Christ that decorates an arch border is by Donatello! It is funny seeing his work paired with
obviously less stunning carved figures.
Here is a part of the museum’s own description:

“The most
richly decorated side-door of the Cathedral, that to the northeast call the Porta della Mandorla (Almond Door), was realised
[sic] by various sculptors in the years 1391-1422. The components shown here, from the archivolt
and lateral pilasters, belong to the years 1404-1409 and illustrate the range
of styles used in the early 15th-century Florence, with some of the
figures still gothic while others proclaim a reborn interest in Greco-Roman
sculpture. The Suffering Christ from the door’s keystone, a work by the young
Donatello, appears to be an early study for that artist’s wood crucifix in the
Basilica of Santa Croce.”

Note that the Italians, as I suspect most Europeans,
used British English more than American [hence the “sic” above.]

Note also that another sign under the arranged
fragments titles the work by Donatello as “Rilievo con Cristo Vir dolorum”
(Relief with Christ Man of Sorrows).
1404-1409. Perhaps the two titles
is simply a matter of different translations.

In the image of the architectural drawing, the blue
section of the pointed arch above the doorway, labeled F, is where the
Donatello and gothic fragments originally resided.

Enjoy! I am
happy to report that I am back to painting and drawing daily in my new
temporary home. Most of my things are
still in storage until my real home is ready, but I have taken what I need from
there and am working away with lovely views and birds singing daily. Sanity is starting to return.

Gadget

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About Me

"I am interested in the more personal moments of our lives – things we do not often share with other people, or at least, not knowingly so. I am also fascinated by the duality of our nature, especially the idea that two opposing concepts exist in a strange kind of balance. Our thoughts are expressed through our bodies. I use the elements of visual language to appeal to the senses of sight and touch while exploring these ideas, seeking the universal in the personal. I want art to be a sensual experience." - Kelly Borsheim

Since her first painting sale in October 1997 (an oil painting titled Hand Off Knee),
Kelly Borsheim's paintings, drawings, and bronze and stone sculpture are now in private
collections throughout the United States and Europe, and in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Kelly also worked as a street painter (pastels and chalks) in Florence, Italy for about four years. Her image-filled book "My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy" is available on Amazon.com in many countries around the world, as well as directly from her studios.